Replay
by kitty132383
Summary: An accident with a seal leaves Team Seven stranded on their own in the past. They have to get back to their time, but it's going to be harder than they think. New enemies, past ghosts... they never get a break do they? Timetravel fic.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Okay. So, just as I was on the 5th chapter of this story, I suddenly realized I didn't like how it began and that it was very unrealistic seeing how they were currently in war. So, I decided to change the whole thing.**

* * *

It was just their luck, Kakashi thought, to be plummeting thousands of feet to their death on the ground below them. A little bit below him, he could hear Sakura screaming out profanities to the rushing wind, and even farther down he could hear Naruto yelling about how he was too young to die. Why were they falling, you might ask? Well, Kakashi could've said that they were fighting a mysterious high-ranked ninja, who threw a mysterious scroll at them which was why they were in this predicament. He also could've said that Naruto was attempting to try out the Hiraishin no Jutsu and had somehow dragged the rest of Team 7 with him. In fact, he could've said that they had all decided to give sky-diving a try and their parachutes broke down. All of these reasons ranked much better in his mind than the _real _reason they were falling.

The truth was that Naruto tripped.

They had just been coming back from a simple B-ranked mission when Naruto, who hadn't been paying attention, slammed straight into a tree branch, lost his footing, and fell to the ground where there had been a seal on the ground. To his growing horror, the seal was a blood activated one and Naruto had dripped a bit of blood on it. The seal had flashed white for a moment and then Sasuke grabbed onto Naruto, and Sakura grabbed onto both Sasuke _and _himself. As the light became blinding, he barely managed to hear Naruto yell, "Transportation seal!" before they were whisked off to God knows where.

'_What if we land in Iwagakure?' _Kakashi thought with dread. Ever since the fact that Naruto was Namikaze Minato's son came into the public, everyone had become crazy with questions and they were constantly being bombarded with mobs of people. It didn't make them a very good intelligence team, but they were always more of a front line team anyways.

"Henge!" He yelled at them. Kakashi thanked whatever God was out there that they heard him and immediately transformed. Just in time too as he could make out the various shapes of buildings coming closer to them, and he silently braced himself for the impact.

* * *

Minato glanced up at the slowly nearing village gates and a smile broke out on his face.

"Sensei, you're smiling like an idiot again." Kakashi said from behind him.

"Oh, really?" He muttered distractedly as he ran up to the gates and enveloped the waiting redhead in his arms.

"I'm back, Kushina!" He grinned down at her.

"I can tell." She grumbled, but a fond smile played on her lips. Wiggling out of his arms, she tugged on his sleeve. "Let's go to Ichiraku's after you've reported to the Hokage. It's your treat, okay?"

Kushina walked forwards a few steps. "Do you want to come with us Mikoto? Fugaku-sama?"

"Sure." Mikoto replied easily. "We have time to spare."

Minato blinked as he glanced at the two other people there. He hadn't even realized they were with her. He smiled sheepishly in their direction.

"Ah, I didn't know you were there…" He trailed off in embarrassment. Mikoto, one of Kushina's best friends, merely smiled at him while her husband, Fugaku, grunted at him. Minato was often the unfortunate victim of Kushina's rants about how he was a world class jerk, and how she didn't know what Mikoto saw in him. As he was about to sign in with the two chunin at the gates, his students came running up to him.

"Thanks for ditching us, sensei!" Obito yelled in annoyance. Kakashi and Rin fell in step next to him while he continued his tirade about being left behind and how it was his responsibility as a teacher to take care of his students. It was as he was tuning out Obito's voice that he heard it.

"Obito," He said sharply, freezing where he stood. "Be quiet for a second."

Obito looked slightly insulted but fell quiet. Everyone else in the group stopped to look at him as he tilted his head to the side slightly.

"Do you hear that?" Minato asked. "It sounds like… screaming."

The group fell silent. Sure enough, they could hear the faint sounds of someone yelling, and it was getting louder by the second.

"Where is it coming from?" Kushina asked curiously, looking around her.

Finally, Rin looked up and gasped.

"Sensei! There's people falling from the sky!"

Minato's eyes widened as he jerked into action. Tossing his special kunai at his students, he yelled, "Throw these at the people!"

With a yellow flash, he disappeared completely.

When Kakashi felt something grab a hold of his shirt, and then felt solid ground beneath his feet, he nearly whimpered in relief. Looking around him, he saw his students standing too, albeit a bit shakily. Somehow, _somehow_, they had managed to survive another impossible life-endangering ordeal that had been a constant in his life ever since taking on Team Seven as a team. _'I should have run away when the Sandaime suggested it.' _It was then that he heard The Voices. Getting shakily to his feet, he felt a hand at the back of his neck and promptly black out. His last vision before he collapsed was of the Hokage Monument… with only three heads on it.

* * *

Naruto awoke silently, but didn't open his eyes or make any movement. It was a trick he learned during the war. After all, people talked about all sorts of things when they thought you were clonked out. He could remember someone forcing him into unconsciousness. He could feel tight ropes and ninja wire wrapped around him, and the cold paper of what probably was a chakra seal. Where was he? After the war ended, the Shinobi Alliance had broken up, but all the countries were at peace with each. After all, you didn't go through a war of that magnitude together and not be friends, or, at least allies. The only thing he could think of was some sort of bandit, but there was no way they would be strong enough to defeat them. Was it a new sort of enemy then?

He could hear faint murmuring in the background. "One of them is awake. The blonde one." Came a muffled voice.

Naruto mentally groaned. Of course his henge would be released after he fell unconscious. Well, his ruse was blown. He slowly opened his eyes to see nothing but darkness. It figured. No one would be stupid enough to leave him room to check his surroundings. Glancing to his sides, he could see Kakashi, Sasuke, and Sakura bound the same way he was.

Slowly, a face loomed through the darkness. It wasn't a face per say, but a white mask with a snarling tiger painted on it. Naruto felt his confusion grow even greater. Wasn't that one of the ANBU masks? Did that mean he was in Konoha? Or did someone in ANBU become a missing nin and took the mask with them? So many questions buzzed around in his head that he could barely think through his confusion.

A kunai was held to his throat. "Talk. Who are you and how did you get here?"

"Er, well, my name is Naruto. I think me and my team mates fell into a transportation seal." He said truthfully.

The kunai was moved away, and he mentally breathed a sigh of relief. He could sense that the others were awake now too, although they kept their breathing steady and stayed still. It was a good thing his captors didn't seem to realize that he was a jinchuuriki and could hear a bit of what they said.

"…-sama, looks like… Namikaze."

"There's one that… fan on his shirt."

"—never seen them before."

A little while later, a figure came to stand over Naruto. It was hard to see, but he could tell this figure was probably the leader. He had an aura of power that surrounded him like a well-worn cloak.

"So tell me," his voice came, "How is it that you have Konoha headbands yet I have never seen you before?"

Naruto barely held himself back from gaping like an idiot. This voice… it was a bit different, but so eerily familiar to a voice he remembered from his childhood. It was the Sandaime.

"Well?" The Sandaime said, voice growing dangerous. This couldn't be possible. Naruto's mind struggled through the possibilities. This wasn't possible. He people was long dead. Naruto had attended his funeral! A genjutsu maybe? But what could the enemy possibly wish to accomplish by making him see a vision of the past? He would know something was wrong the moment he saw the Sandaime. But more importantly, when could the genjutsu have started? He could have sworn he had tripped into the seal on the ground. Naruto knew for certain it was a transportation jutsu, and he wouldn't screw up on something like that. Especially since he was studying Fuinjutsu and he was a natural at it. So, a genjutsu was the only probable option. Naruto wasn't fool enough to proclaim anything to be impossible, having done many impossible things in his lifetime. All of this passed through his mind in an instant. After all, a ninja who couldn't deal with a strange situation was a dead ninja.

"If I may, Sandaime-sama?" He vaguely heard Kakashi speak up. He felt the ANBU jerk silently in surprise as they suddenly reappeared beside Kakashi, watching him.

Kakashi waited patiently with an outward calm as the Sandaime glanced at him, mentally assessing his danger level and appearance. Hiruzen didn't say it out loud, but he found it unnerving how similar this man looked to Sakumo. And there was the other boy too, who looked too much like Minato for his liking. He knew that Minato and his team had found this group falling from the sky, which wasn't exactly a subtle way of breaking into a village. Were they imposters who thought that those people would be out on a mission? But… their appearance didn't match exactly to the people they were posing as. The blonde one had some sort of marks on his cheek and the one who looked like Sakumo had most of his face covered with a mask and his hitaite.

"Very well." Hiruzen said finally. "Speak."

Just as Kakashi opened his mouth, there came an ANBU marched up to the Hokage and whispered something to him. Kakashi glanced down to his hand, where he held a scroll that came from his pouch. The Hokage had given it to him before the mission, saying that he would need it for the mission and that he wouldn't be able to open it anyways.

Hiruzen glanced at the scroll in his hands, turning it over. The ANBU had reported that it wasn't dangerous, which was unusual during the war time because any information was precious. Normally, a scroll would have a function to destroy it in case it came into the enemies hands, but it didn't appear to be the case here. And what was strange was that it couldn't be opened. There was a seal on it ensuring that only a person with a specific chakra could open it. It was feature similar to a Clan scroll, where only people from that particular clan could open it.

Slowly, he pushed his chakra into it. The scroll opened. There was nothing on it but words, for his eyes only.

'_Dear Hiruzen,_

_I know that you must be confused, but this is urgent. The people in front of you are from the future. _

_I would like to explain more but unfortunately, we have no time. I only ask you to trust me. There is a jinchuuriki in this group and because of the extra chakra from the demon; the world is starting to become unbalanced. Send for Jiraiya to come back immediately. He hasn't told you yet, but he has played around with time travel seals in his youth and he will be able to send this group back to where they belong. _

_From, Sarutobi Hiruzen'_

Hiruzen stared at the sheet of paper. It was amazing how in a single moment, his whole perspective had changed. The only way to make a seal which responded to his chakra was if someone in his family made it, or himself. And there was the fact that it came from the pouch of a stranger too. The letter was probably telling the truth.

Folding the paper neatly, he barked one order to his ANBU.

"Release them."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I know all of you are probably reading this and going, what the hell is this? The thing is, I changed the beginning of the story, so everything else I wrote after that is now void. Like, literally, the whole plot is slightly different. You probably want to go back to the first chapter and reread that, because I altered the whole thing. Sorry for the inconviniece!**

* * *

Naruto, Kakashi, Sasuke, and Sakura stood in front of the Hokage's desk, confused. Sakura didn't know what was happening. One moment, she was listening in on some sort of conversation, and the next, she heard an order to release them. And for that matter, the dead Sandaime was sitting in front of them and there were only three heads on the Hokage Monument. So it was the understatement of the century to say that she was confused as hell. She pinched herself for good measure, not that it would get her out of the genjutsu she was in.

She saw Kakashi step forward. "Hokage-sama, is there a reason why you suddenly deemed it okay to release us?"

Wordlessly, the Sandaime passed him a sheet of paper. She saw Kakashi's lone eyes flicker over the words, and then saw him slump in defeat.

Sakura was completely and utterly lost, the familiar feeling of frustration creeping up on her. Except this time, she couldn't destroy anything.

Kakashi turned to Sasuke, who was standing a bit behind him. "Sasuke, turn on your Sharingan and check if we are in a genjutsu."

She saw the familiar red eyes of the Doujutsu being activated and watched as he scanned his surroundings. Just as quickly, he turned it off and the familiar ebony color of his eyes returned. Wordlessly, he shook his head at Kakashi.

"Ne, Kakashi-sensei! What does this mean?" Naruto shouted impatiently.

"Now, now, Naruto, calm down." Kakashi said, sounding ten years older than his actual age. He turned around and looked each of his students in the eye, conveying how serious this problem was. "The thing is, we've landed in the past."

Sakura gaped at him. She could vaguely see Naruto scratching the back of his head in confusion and Sasuke narrowing his eyes in thought.

"How is that possible?" Sasuke said slowly.

Kakashi glanced at Hiruzen, and shrugged. "Don't know. But I _do _know that we have to get out of here as soon as possible. We're calling for Jiraiya to make a seal to send us home."

Naruto choked slightly at that. He would get to see the old pervert again? Conflicting emotions battered against him more strongly than ever and he knew that the whole time travel thing had not yet processed for him yet. It was almost like a dream come true.

"So, what are we supposed to do now sensei?" Sakura asked quietly. "Until the pervert gets here?"

Hiruzen choked back a laugh. So, she knew what Jiraiya's true nature was? He wondered if she was ever a victim of one of his bathhouse spying.

"Don't' worry old man, we all know you're a pervert too." Naruto said flippantly.

Hiruzen frowned. He wasn't that old, was he? Why did everyone insist on saying he was old? "Why don't you guys introduce yourself? Name and rank please."

Kakashi shrugged and went first. "Hatake Kakashi, former ANBU and current S-ranked jounin."

The Hokage nodded. "I assumed so. You look so much like Sakumo."

In the background, you could hear Naruto saying, "He doesn't look much like _anything _with his face covered like that." He was ignored.

But, observing his stance and speech, he could tell that the Kakashi of the future was completely different from the Kakashi of now. The slouch implied a relaxed attitude and his speech was lazier and less formal. Hiruzen wondered what happened to have wrought such a big change. There was also the fact that his left eye was covered… did something happen to damage it? Was he blind in that eye?

"And you three?" Hiruzen asked, nodding to them. The dark haired one was probably an Uchiha, and the blonde one looked like Minato's kid. He wasn't too sure about the pink-haired on though… maybe civilian born?

The Uchiha went next. "Uchiha Sasuke." He said emotionlessly. "My rank is…"

Here, he paused uncertainly and glanced at his teacher. Kakashi grinned under his mask. "I believe you're still a genin."

The reaction was immediate. "What did you say?" He scowled.

Kakashi merely patted his shoulder.

Hiruzen was, once again, shocked. Normally by that age, and Uchiha was already at least a chunin. To discover that this one was still a genin was completely mind-blowing. Shaking his head, he wondered how many more times he would be surprised before this was over.

"Wait, wait. Does this mean I'm still a genin too?" The Minato look-alike yelled indignantly. At Kakashi's nod, his mouth dropped in shock. "No way… I still a genin?" He began muttering to himself.

"You're enjoying this way too much." Sasuke grumbled under his breath at his teacher.

The look-alike grumbled as well, but introduced himself. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto! I'm a genin right now but I'm going to become Hokage 'ttebayo!"

…

Had he thought that he looked like Minato? Well, his personality was eerily like Kushina's. The verbal tick was also there too! Examining the horrible bright orange color of his jumpsuit (was he trying to get killed?) and the marks on his face, he deduced that this must be the jinchuuriki. And _Naruto? _Minato must've been insane to name his kid fishcake. Or, maelstrom worked too, but it was probably fishcake. He decided not to comment on this.

"Nice to meet you Naruto." He said, nodding in his direction.

The last to go was the girl. With pink hair. Hiruzen wondered if it was genetically possible to produce a child with pink hair. He was pretty sure there was no one in Konoha with that hair color.

"My name is Haruno Sakura. I'm a chunin and my parents are civilians."

Hiruzen nodded slowly. The girl didn't look that strong, but he knew for a fact that appearances could be deceiving.

Standing up, he said, "Okay then. Now that that's over with, what should we do with you?"

They stayed silent as he reviewed his options out loud.

"Obviously, I can't send you to the frontlines. B and C-ranked missions wouldn't work either because no one knows who you are. Which leaves… D-ranked missions."

Naruto immediately made his opinion know, loudly. "What? I'm never doing another stinking D-ranked again!"

Hiruzen watched in amusement as the girl had a brief murderous aura surround her and Kakashi sighed. The Uchiha rolled his eyes in exasperation.

"We have no choice, Naruto." Kakashi explained patiently. "All the genin are currently involved in the war effort and we can't go on the other ranks."

Naruto huffed, crossing his arms and pouting. Grumbling slightly, he quieted down.

"We can't just walk around the village like this either." Sakura said. "You guys are way too noticeable."

Hiruzen nodded in agreement. "For now, you'll have to use masks and scarves to cover yourselves up. Henge's are easily looked through. Any Chunin or Jounin could see this and confront you."

Signalling to the ANBU to bring some clothes, he turned back to the group.

"The only thing left is housing. You can all just stay with me at the Hokage's mansion."

Kakashi nodded. "Is that all, Hokage-sama?"

Hiruzen tilted his head slightly. "One last thing. I want to test your fighting capabilities, in case worse comes to worst. We'll go to Training Ground 3 tomorrow at seven and check your abilities then."

Naruto shrugged. "Sounds good to me."

At that moment, the ANBU appeared once again, placing a bag of clothes on the ground. In another heartbeat, he was gone. Sakura walked towards the bag, getting out a red scarf and draping in around her lower face. Sasuke, unfortunately, had to change his shirt because it had the Uchiha symbol on it. He chose a navy blue long-sleeved shirt and a black scarf. Naruto eagerly grabbed an orange toque (What was with him and the color orange?) to hide his hair, and grabbed a high collared black shirt for his face. Kakashi didn't need a change of clothes, but reluctantly took a blue bandana to cover his hair. In the end, they all looked like a bunch of mismatched ninja. Hiruzen stifled another laugh.

"You look… great." He said lamely.

Everyone but Naruto scowled at him. The boy was too busy being impressed with his awful clothing.

"I'll show you to the mansion." The Hokage said, getting up. "After that, you're free to do whatever you want, but try not to tell anyone your secret. And Kakashi? You will now go by the codename Takeo."

As they walked out of the door, he pretended he didn't hear Naruto saying, "You just want an excuse to not do your paperwork, Old man."


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Another chapter out! Also, I got a review from an anonymous person. I think that the review has some valid questions, so I will post it here along with some answers. Feel free to skip it if you want.**

_I hope you do not make a huge point out of them still being genin. Rememberthis is the 3rd war, where everybody halfway competent got a battlefieldpromotion to chuunin, even pre-sharingan Obito, and where they made preteens jounin. And if this is going to Sakura the Chuunin going to boss this boysaround I am rooting for her to abducted to a Kumo Kunoichi rape camp. Otoh, where the hell is this in the timeline? How can they have a scroll ofthe 3rd from the future while it is obviously post timeskip? And even postninja war when Sasuke is back? Then they would be like 17 at least, and nobodygot a promotion after the war? If that continuity mess is the rewrite I do not want to know what the originallooked like._

**First of all, it doesn't really matter if they're genin. In my opinion, they're all around the same skill level and it's just their official title anyways. And yes, this the 3rd Shinobi War, but they are from the future. They have a greater chance of potentially screwing up the future if they fight. Obviously, just by being there they have changed it, but the idea is to keep the timeline as close as possible to what it was before they came. The Sandaime understands this, and so has not asked any questions. What's most important is getting them back to where they're supposed to be. And you say that all the people who can fight, icluding the genin, are involved in the war. That _is _true, but have you wondered what happens to the D-ranks? They are just as important as the war effort becasuse it's those D-ranks that provide food and supplies neccesary to keep the village running. In the Sandaime's eyes, it's killing two birds with one stone. Team 7 can do the D-ranks which provide minimal interaction with people, and usually civilians at that, while the rest of them can concentrate on fighting. As for the scroll thing, that will be explained later on in the story. But I did say that Tsunade was the one who gave it to them, not necessarily that she wrote it. As for the timeline, this _is _after the time-skip. After that, my story deviates from canon. Of course there will probably be promotions, but Saskue and Naruto are genin. Because I don't know exactly what the procedure will be during the war, I assume they still have to take the chunin exam and pass, which they didn't. Anyways, I hope that answer some of your guys questions. Enjoy the chapter!**

**If anyone else wants their questions answered, it's probably best to sign in. Otherwise I won't be able to answer it that well.**

* * *

After giving a quick tour of the mansion, Hiruzen left to continue his paperwork, leaving Team 7 to entertain themselves. The whole time, Naruto was bouncing up and down in excitement.

"I'm going to live here when I become the Hokage!" he declared cheerfully.

Sakura gave him a distracted nod, and continued searching through the rooms. On the other hand, the boys just choose the first room they found and plopped down. Once they got settled down, Kakashi called for a meeting in the dining room. They sat around the round table, faces serious as they contemplated what to say.

"We're in the past." Naruto stated.

"Thanks for stating the obvious." Sasuke snorted.

"I think the question is _how _we got into the past." Kakashi murmured thoughtfully. "I spoke to the Sandaime. He's giving us access to his private library to research it. But let's review what we know so far."

"First of all, Naruto tripped into that transportation seal." Sakura said thoughtfully. "I assume that was when it activated and we came into the past."

Naruto frowned. "Fuinjutsu is a complicated subject. One mistake and you could end up blowing up something. But… a transportation seal doesn't have any components of time involved in it. What a transportation seal does is basically bending space so you end up in a different location. It's possible the person who made the seal made a mistake when drawing the seal, but it's unlikely that they made such a huge mistake to send us to the past. And why would they draw it in the middle of the forest too?"

"We're approximately 20-25 years into the past." Sasuke continued. "It's also possible that the person who drew the seal _wanted _us to go to the past. But I don't know what good that would do."

Kakashi hummed attentively. "Time travel huh? The theory that the person purposely put the seal there is probably most likely." He concluded. At their curious looks, he elaborated more. "Think about it. If a normal ninja tried to time travel, the most they would get back is a year or two. And that would be pushing Chakra exhaustion. But Naruto has more than double the amount of chakra a normal person does, and that's not even including the chakra of the Nine-tails."

They all fell silent. "So, your saying we have a possible unknown enemy running around in the past doing God knows what?" Sakura asked.

Kakashi shrugged. "It's the most likely possibility."

Sakura sighed. "Well, then. We should make up a cover story first. In case someone stops to question us, or why we were falling out of the sky."

"How about that we were fugitives from Amegakure, and the Hokage accepted us into his village for protection?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke nodded. "A lot of fighting is going on in Amegakure. It's only natural to seek protection from it."

"The reason we fell from the sky in because we thought it would be faster to use a transportation seal, but we screwed up. And any other questions we can just direct to the Hokage." Sakura said. "Simple, but it works."

"We can tell the Hokage about our theory and cover later." Kakashi decided. "Why don't you guys go out and get some fresh air?"

Almost in sync, all four of the got up from the table and headed out, each going their separate ways.

* * *

Naruto, lost in thought, let his feet lead him. This was almost too much to take in. They were supposed to be in Konoha (_their _Konoha) by now, but by some twist of fate had ended up in the past, interrogated, and now there was a possible enemy on the horizon. It almost reminded him when he was younger, when he didn't know who the Akatsuki were and why they were targeting him. Blinking back into focus, he realized he was standing right in front Ichiraku's. Letting a soft smile settle onto his face, he walked into the stall calling, "Two miso ramen please!"

The familiar face of old man Teuchi greeted him, although it was less wrinkled and he still had some black left in his hair. As he sat down on a stool, he barely noticed the person sitting next to him jerk in surprise and stare at him openly.

Kushina watched the boy next to her as he took a pair of chopsticks and snapped them apart. He didn't seem to notice she was there. He was dressed pretty bizarrely too. And judging by the locks of sunny blonde hair escaping from his orange toque, this was one of the people who fell from the sky earlier. She didn't really know what happened in all the chaos. She knew that once Minato got then safely onto the ground, the ANBU had arrived and escorted them somewhere else with a single nod of thanks. All she remembered was the vivid hair colors they had. There was someone else with gray hair like Kakashi, and a girl with pink hair. And, for a second, she could've sworn she saw the Uchiha fan, but her eyes were probably playing tricks on her.

The boy didn't do anything but gaze at the countertop for a while so Kushina decided to poke him a couple of times.

"Hey," She said, "I'm Kushina. What's your name?"

She saw as he turned to her, startled. She herself was shocked as she met a pair of cerulean eyes, a bright color that she had only seen on one other person. She saw confusion in his eyes, then shock, recognition, sadness, and finally, happiness. He gave her a wide grin that seemed familiar and introduced himself.

"My name's Naruto. Nice to meet you Kushina-san!"

After a bit of idle chit-chat, she asked the question she was dying to know. "So, why were you falling from the sky? If Minato hadn't caught you, you guys would be goners."

Here, he scratched the back of his head sheepishly. Kushina could swear she had some sense of déjà vu. Leaning towards her, he whispered, "Don't tell anyone, but we're actually fugitives from Ame. We thought it'd be easier to make a transportation seal, but accidently screwed up."

Kushina frowned, suddenly strict. She had experience with seals from Whirlpool and they could be potentially dangerous. "You guys should be more careful." She scolded lightly. "You could've lost a limb or something!"

Naruto ducked his head, thoroughly chastened. The solemn moment was broken when Teuchi placed a large bowl of ramen in front of him. Naruto pounced on the things and in mere minutes, had the bowl cleaned off.

"Another one!" he yelled cheerfully.

Teuchi simply shook his head, amazed. Looks like he had found another person with a bottomless stomach.

The two continued to chat as they waited for their ramen. Naruto found out that Kushina had been a bit of a tom-boy while in the academy. She had thought that Minato was a bit of a pussy at first, she had confided. Naruto laughed out loud at that, disbelieving. He then told her about how he was a prankster in his youth, and some of the pranks he had pulled.

Kushina smirked, eyes dancing mischievously. "Pranks, huh? I've done a couple of them too."

Finally, after ten or so more bowls, the two parted ways. As Naruto walked back to the mansion, he realized that the warm feeling coursing through him wasn't just from the ramen.

* * *

Sasuke walked around the village aimlessly. He ended up walking soundlessly through the market place, letting the sounds and smells of everyday life wash over him. It was simple things like these that counted the most. He was glad Naruto and Sakura managed to knock him into his senses and literally force him back to Konoha. Although, he thought, the house arrest was pretty bad. Not to mention the whispers and mocking that followed him everywhere after that. It was nice to be able to walk through the village without hate directed towards him.

Hate. What an ugly word. It had been his central thought for the past ten years. The only thing it did was spawn more hate. Clenching his fist, he just caught the end of sentence directed towards him.

Looking around, he didn't see anyone talking to him. There was a tug at the bottom of the pants, and the childish voice spoke again.

"Mister, why do you have such funny hair?"

Looking down, he met eyes the same ebony black as his. They were wide and curious, not tainted with regret and blood as they were the last time he had seen them. It held certain innocence in it that only children possess.

"Itachi!" A feminine voice called. "Itachi, don't run off like that!"

"Mom," Itachi said, turning towards the woman. "Why does that man have such funny hair?"

Mikoto gasped. "Oh, my, Itachi, it's rude to say that. Apologize immediately!"

"Sorry." Child-Itachi said unapologetically.

"It's okay." Sasuke said, clearing his face of any emotion.

Mikoto peered closer at him. "Aren't you one of the people who fell?"

Sasuke nodded. "We're seeking protection in Konoha." He responded robotically. "We accidently messed up a seal."

She nodded in acceptance.

_They were dead (gonegonegone forever), crumpled on the ground in a heap. _

Mikoto chatted happily with him, hitching Itachi on her hip.

_The acceptance on her face as she toppled forwards, bleeding furiously. _

Itachi was staring at him solemnly. Those childish eyes, not quite the same as what he remembered.

_Why was there so much blood? Flooding around the room and sticking to his skin. He had never seen such a horrifying sight._

Sasuke muttered an excuse, and fled from the two people who he never thought he'd see again.

Itachi tugged on his mother's blouse. "I don't think he likes me." He said sadly. "I like him though."

"Don't be ridiculous Itachi. Of course he liked you!" Mikoto smiled. "Now, why don't we go home?"

The boy nodded his agreement, and the two of them headed towards the Uchiha Compound.

* * *

Sakura didn't know what to do. So naturally, she went to the hospital. It was a place as familiar as the back of her hand. She didn't know how many hours she spent there healing people, or doing some paperwork. It was like a second home to her. Except, no one knew who she was. After just standing there for about half an hour, she felt a young medic approach her nervously and ask her if she needed anything. Sakura wondered to herself, what was she doing here?

Tilting her head to the side, she asked, "Ah, I was wondering if I could help out in the hospital? I'm new in Konoha and don't have anything to do right now."

The girl looked unsurely at her and led her to the head doctor. On the way to the office, Sakura noticed the rooms were crammed full of injured ninja, a result of the war. The head doctor looked at her appraisingly, and asked her if she had any experience in healing. She answered yes and healed a fish as an example.

"Okay then," The head doctor, a strict woman by the name of Haru said. "You can help out in the A wing." She shoved a tag at her, which proclaimed her a member of the staff. "Just ask anyone what to do."

And with that, she walked away to help someone else, heels clacking smartly on the floor. Sakura simply shrugged and turned the opposite direction. She knew for a fact that the patients in the A wing were the people with minor injuries. With her abilities, it would be a simple thing to heal the people with larger injuries, but she couldn't do that. It would attract too much attention. Ignoring the guilt churning up in her, Sakura wondered if it would be her fault if someone died.

Walking away, she just missed the curious glance of a plain girl with purple rectangles on her cheek as she passed by.

* * *

'_How is it that I always end up here?' _Kakashi wondered to himself, glancing down at the memorial stone in front of him.

Footsteps sounded behind him. Kakashi tensed, extending his senses. He relaxed when he realized it was only his sensei. The man came to stand beside him and the two fell into a comfortable silence, watching the stone.

"Did you lose someone in the war too?" Minato asked quietly.

Kakashi nodded silently. He could tell Minato was watching him.

"We're from Ame." Kakashi said, knowing he would be curious. "Came to Konoha for protection. We screwed up the seal."

Minato nodded, and gestured to his bandana. "Is there a reason why you cover all your hair?"

"It's graying."

"We look about the same age." Minato said dubiously. As he turned to the other man, he heard a small poof and realized he was now alone. His jaw dropped.

"Well that's one way to avoid questioning." He said out loud, amused. Shaking his head, he turned to walk back to the village to tell Kushina about what had transpired.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: The next chapters finally out! Yay! And without any further ado, enjoy! :)**

* * *

When Sakura came back from working at the hospital, everyone, including the Hokage, had already arrived and was waiting for her. She noticed that they seemed a bit more subdued than usual. Hiruzen smiled at her in greeting.

"Welcome back." He nodded. "Your teammates have just informed me of their cover story and also your suspicions that an enemy might be here.

Sakura nodded quickly in understanding.

"You guys should rest up for your skill evaluation tomorrow." The Hokage advised after a quick silence.

They meekly went without a word.

* * *

The next day, Naruto woke up to the sound of bacon crackling on a pan and the smell of scrambled eggs in the air. For a moment, he just laid there, savouring the feeling of having someone else in the house when he woke up. Then his brain caught up with him and he froze. Wait a minute, where was he? The mattress he was laying on was unbelievably soft, unlike the hard lump that was his bed in his apartment.

He thought hard for a minute. Oh, right. They were in the past. And with a possible unknown enemy running around, but that wasn't important right now. What was important was that he was hungry and there was a delicious smell wafting from the kitchen. Naruto rushed through his shower, covering his face as best as possible before quickly running downstairs. He stopped short at sight of a lady with gray streaked hair standing in front of the stove. She turned at his arrival.

"Hello there." She smiled kindly. "You must be one of the guests Hiruzen told me about. My name is Biwako, the Sandaime's wife."

Naruto stared at her stupidly. "The ojii-san's… wife?" He repeated in confusion.

"Yes, his wife." Biwako replied patiently, her ebony eyes silently crinkled in amusement. "Hiruzen already left earlier to finish some paperwork. It's been piling up these days."

Naruto gaped at her for a few more moments before shrugging and grabbing a plate.

"I didn't see you yesterday." He said around a mouthful of food.

Biwako nodded in response. "I was out helping a friend with a pregnancy. I just got back this morning."

Naruto nodded, accepting this explanation easily. As the morning progressed slowly, Sasuke and Sakura made their way down to the kitchen. After breakfast, they headed to Training ground 3 together.

"Do you think Takeo-sensei will be there?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke shook her head. "Well, considering where we are, I think he might be later than usual."

Sakura sighed worriedly. "Just think of what the Sandaime will think!" she fretted.

Naruto gave her an easy grin as they hopped along the rooftops. "Don't worry! The old man isn't one to worry about things like these!"

Sakura sighed, not at all eased, but continued on their way silently. As they landed at the training ground, the one with the three posts ironically enough, they saw that they weren't the first ones there.

* * *

Minato turned slightly at the sound of light footsteps behind him. He had been in the middle of chastising Obito for, once again, being late when they had interrupted him. Turning around fully, his eyes narrowed as he appraised the strangers.

Looking at their hair colour, he could immediately tell that these were the people that he saved from a gruesome death on the cement. From the suddenly tense and quiet figures behind him, he could tell his students thought so too.

Last night, when he had gone home from the memorial stone, he had been fully prepared to tell Kushina about his encounter with the new ninja. Surprisingly, she had also mentioned how she had talked to one of them too at the ramen stand. She then proclaimed to him that they couldn't be bad, because anyone who loves Ichiraku's couldn't possibly be the enemy. He sincerely hoped this was true. Minato didn't want to see her face if they turned out to be traitors.

Blinking back to reality, he realized that the foreign ninja hadn't spoken and neither did they. Squinting closer at their faces, he noticed that they were only teenagers. He opened his mouth to say something, anything, but the only thing that came out of his mouth was silent. He cleared his throat.

"Hello," Minato said politely, "You must be the new ninja from Ame."

The blonde in their group seemed frozen in shock for some reason, so the black haired boy stepped forward and nodded.

"Thank you for saving us." He mentioned quietly, with an undertone of quiet confidence he had only heard of in seasoned warriors.

Minato simply smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head. "Ah… it was no big deal. What are you guys doing here, for that matter?"

This time, the pinkette took over. "The Sandaime told us to wait here so he could test our skills. Not that it really matters if all we're doing is D-ranks." She muttered the last part quietly, but Minato still heard.

In his mind, he nodded approvingly. The Sandaime had obviously trusted them even if they were foreign ninja; otherwise they would have several ANBU guarding them each. And this way, even if they were traitors, they would simply be confined within the village, unable to contact any of their possible allies. Not to mention, this completely removed the risk of them freezing up in battle if they saw a previous comrade. Of course, there was always the risk of them attacking the Hokage outright, but he was heavily guarded by at least two platoons of ANBU, and the village's secret scrolls and information had been personally sealed by Jiraiya.

It was at that moment that the Sandaime, in his Hokage robes, appeared. He smiled kindly at them, even the foreigners, and spoke in a gravelly voice, "Minato. I did not expect to see you here."

The jounin sensei nodded in response. "I thought I'd change their training a bit today." He gestured to the students behind him, who had remained silent throughout the whole exchange.

"Well, I suppose we should leave you to your training then." Hiruzen said, nodding at them.

Minato smiled sheepishly again. "Okay guys, let's go this way." He could tell that the Hokage wanted to be alone and he wouldn't dare disrespect his wishes.

'_But damn,' _he thought mournfully, _'I really wanted to use that training ground.'_

* * *

Naruto released the breath he didn't even know he was holding and stumbled shakily to lean against the pole. Meeting his mother in flesh was exciting and heart-warming, but his father? Naruto didn't deny that he still had some hero worship instilled in him from his childhood days. Sakura and Sasuke didn't comment, merely regarding him with searching eyes.

The Hokage cleared his throat to get their attention. "So, I take it you don't know where your sensei is?"

Sakura let out an unladylike snort. "He's going to be at least an hour late Hokage-sama. You'd best get comfortable."

The sun rose higher in the sky as they waited.

And waited.

Naruto nodded off a bit and Sasuke jerked his awake with a punch. The blonde glared at him in irritation.

And still, they waited.

Exactly 2 hours and 24 minutes later, a small poof was heard.

"Yo." Kakashi called. "Sorry I'm late, I-"

"Was helping an old lady carry her grocery bags?" Naruto asked sarcastically.

"Or saw a black cat and took a detour around the whole village?" Sasuke questioned.

"Or did you get lost on the path of life again?" Sakura asked. "It's amazing how you can get lost so many times on a one way path."

He simply chuckled and ruffled their hair. "I should get new excuses, shouldn't I?"

A dead-panned look all around him was the only answer.

"So," Naruto asked conversationally, "What kind of test are we doing?"

The Hokage grinned. "How about the Bell Test?"

The Bell Test was a tradition the Shodaime had created, and passed onto him. Hiruzen knew for a fact that Jiraiya had used the test when Minato was still a genin, and the man had also passed in onto his students. But he wasn't prepared for the complaints that rose from the members of Team 7.

"Come on, Old man! We've done that one, like, a billion times already!"

"Honestly, can't you guys think of another test? I'm sure it wouldn't be that hard."

"Hn." Translation: I agree. Let's do something else.

Sarutobi stared at them, and then turned to their sensei with a questioning look. Takeo shrugged.

"They've done it several times already."

They had done it the first time as genin, and then after Sasuke left, Sakura and Naruto had done it again. And then, after he came back to Konoha, they did it once more. It was understatement to say that they were sick of it. He was pretty tired of getting his butt kicked time and time again anyways.

The Hokage frowned. "Well then. Is there anything you want to do?"

Takeo hummed thoughtfully. "Why don't we play… hide and seek?"

Everyone stared at him like he was crazy. It was quite possible that he hit his head on the way down from the sky and was only showing symptoms now.

"Hide and… seek?" Sakura asked incredulously.

"That's a pretty good idea," The Hokage considered the idea. "We are in a war right now. Stealth and information gathering are currently more important than any fancy jutsu's."

Hiruzen nodded to imself. "It's decided then. We will play hide and seek. There will be two teams. Naruto and Sasuke are one team, and will be hiding while Sakura and Takeo will seek. If you encounter each other, you have permission to engage in combat. However, if there is any damage done to the civilians or your surroundings, there will be… dire consequences." Hiruzen glanced at the four time-travellers with a dark look. "You will be given 8 hours. The seekers must catch both of the opposing team by this time, or the other team wins. The whole village is the battlefield. Are we clear?"

Everyone murmured assent. Naruto grinned at the challenge, while both Sakura and Sasuke smirked. Takeo glanced up from his book, bored, and promptly snapped it shut, putting it back in his pouch.

Sarutobi smiled at them. "I have a feeling that this I going to be interesting."

"Naruto and Sasuke will get a 30 minute head start. After that, the game is on." Sarutobi glanced at the four faces. (Well, three faces, one mask. Technically.)

"Begin!"

Immediately, Sasuke and Naruto jumped away and were quickly out of sight. Sakura grinned, the familiar excitement of a challenge rising up in her as she cracked her knuckles and snapped on her gloves. She was barely aware of the maniacal grin on her face.

Half an hour later, she and Takeo were gone.

The Sandaime stayed where he was for a while. Then, he made his way back to the Tower. From there he would be able to spy on them and their progress. And also secretly sneak peeks into the girl's public bath. Ah, the wonders of the all-seeing ball.

* * *

**A/N: Okay, so, I need help. I am at an extreme writer's block and you know how I totally changed the plot and everything? Yeah, the whole 'new enemy' thing came out of the blue so I actually don't have an enemy to speak of. Until I do, I don't think I will be updating very often. So, tell me what you think. If you have any ideas just go wild and blurt them out to me, whether it be a PM of a review. **

**Oh, and don't forget to review! :)**


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